Monthly Archives: April 2012

The Daily Feed
By

Some advice from Chuck Thies

Photo courtesy of tbridge
Campaign signs
courtesy of tbridge

The world of city politics in the District is often murky, and as of late, ridden with scandals. On Sunday afternoon, local political consultant and commentator Chuck Thies put on a little lecture on what it takes to be a candidate, and how important it can be to plan ahead. The tweets seemed to come out of left field, though, but when I talked with Thies (via Twitter, naturally) he pointed at the editorial from the Post today on Instant Runoff Voting.

“[It was] a few things. 1) I was wholly unimpressed with the challengers’ campaigns this cycle; 2) the WaPo editorial on IRV is not the answer,” Thies said. He continued, “IRV is roulette where the weak can prevail.” For Thies, the biggest issue is not just the quality of candidate stock, but rather the conditions we’re operating in: “[the] biggest impediment [is] the state of our politics. Very few people in their right mind would willfully wade into a sewer.”

One need not look far to see how quickly local politics devolves. The brief and abortive campaign of Fiona Greig is but the most recent example of the difficulties facing challengers. I’m not saying that Greig handled her brief candidacy correctly, but that’s certainly something that a lot of potential challengers’ families and friends can point to in opposition to a run for office.

When I asked Thies about how to fix the conditions that he decries, he was quick to point out two prongs of the approach: “Ronald Machen continues to shake things up and ferret out crooks, and; strong 2014 contenders begin to organize soon.” That means that everyone who wants a shot at the 2014 elections (Wards 1, 3, 5 and 6, the council chair, and three at-large seats, as well as the Mayor) had best start work.

Thies also had a set of remarks for local organizers: Start building. “[T]he reform-minded activists and residents need to get organized. They need a political boss who has fortitude, knowledge, guts and soldiers. Build a machine. [T]oo often, liberals and progressives eschew the concept of political bosses and arm-twisting. [I]n politics the strong survive.”

Below is the guide that Thies tweeted out, in Storify form, in the order they were tweeted. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
By

Washington Monument from a Helicopter


Washington Monument (201204050005HQ)
Originally uploaded by nasa hq photo

Initially, I was told that NASA wasn’t going to release any of the photos that were taken from their T38 jets that overflew the city on Thursday, but they changed their minds, and this beauty was one they released.

Just gorgeous.

Update: Too good to be true. This was not taken by the T-38 trainers that NASA flew over DC yesterday, it was taken from a Bell Huey UH-1N Helicopter that was carrying NASA photographer Bill Ingalls, who took the photo listed above. Sorry for the confusion. Still kinda want to see those photos from the T-38s, though.

capitals hockey, The Daily Feed
By

Caps Secure Playoff Spot


Photo courtesy of clydeorama
Fan Silhouette
courtesy of clydeorama

As unlikely as it may have seemed nine days ago, the Washington Capitals have defied the odds, shaken off some stinging recent defeats and secured a place in the Stanley Cup playoffs starting next week.

The Caps defeated the Florida Panthers 4-2 last night at Verizon Center before a raucous sellout crowd. Washington took an early 3-0 lead, survived a mid-game rally by Florida, then played aggressively down the stretch. Combined with the Buffalo Sabres’ loss in Philadelphia a few minutes earlier, Caps fans were able to celebrate their team’s success in the final home game of the regular season. Continue reading →

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
By

Friday Happy Hour: Rite of Spring at Room 11

Friday Happy Hour is back after our month of ARTINIs – and, I am pleased to report, we will be including some additional voices from our other drinks writers in this space from time to time, in our efforts to bring you the most diverse collection of drinks experiences we can. Spring seems like a perfect time for this sort of re-vamp – and so what could be a more perfect drink to kick off this new season than one called Rite of Spring?

While I love to pester the awesome staff of Room 11 to make me experimental drinks based on what is often a string of near-nonsense adjectives – and they consistently make creative, tasty cocktails off the tops of their heads from my silly prompts – I also like to keep up with the drinks they feature on their menu. These change with the seasons and are generally the results of extensive testing and experimenting.

On a recent visit, their chalkboard offered Rite of Spring and, given the lovely warm day, how could I turn that down? As the name suggests, this is springtime distilled into a coupe glass. Starting with Beefeater gin (of course – what spirit could be more spring than gin?), the drink builds floral notes with a chamomile honey syrup, lavender bitters, and lemon juice. A pinch of aromatic chamomile buds are sprinkled across the top.

The chamomile and lavender has an almost aromatherapy quality of instant calming – so much so, in fact, the staff has nicknamed the honey “sleepy syrup.” After a sip – and, particularly, a smell – one can easily conjure images of a stone house set in the English countryside, surrounded by gardens and probably some kind of stately dog (or whatever else one imagines oneself to have at their country estate – for me, gin and a basset hound will do). All around, Rite of Spring makes for a perfect tipple to enjoy in the early evening of a breezy spring day.

The Daily Feed
By

Arlington Flea Market Reopens This Weekend

Photo courtesy of India Kangaroo
Aix-En-Provence
courtesy of India Kangaroo

Rummagers unite! The Arlington Flea Market opens its season tomorrow for the first of eight monthly events.

A NoVa tradition since 1986, the market takes up five floors worth of space in the I-66 garage in North Arlington next to Washington-Lee high school.

That’s four floors of saucers, necklaces, antique miniature spoons and other amazing crap.

Also known as The Civitan Flea Market, the event’s proceeds go to support the causes espoused by the Civitan Club of Arlington. So not only are you stocking up on obscure used goods and promoting recycling – you’re also benefiting volunteerism and helping people with developmental disabilities.

Continue reading →

Food and Drink, Homebrewing, The Features
By

Homebrew DC: Uniquely American

Photo courtesy of Poncho Equihua
Hops and Yeast, lupulos & levaduras
courtesy of Poncho Equihua

This is another in a series of articles about homebrewing in the DC area by Carl Weaver of RealHomebrew.com. Want to learn about making your own beer? Keep an eye out for Friday homebrew features.

America’s biggest contribution to the beer world, at least in my opinion, is a very good jumping-off point for homebrew: the American ale. It is safe to say that the majority of beer enthusiasts have enjoyed an ale at one time or another. Despite the commercial popularity of pilsners in America, the craft brew community has brought about a rebirth of this uniquely American style.

American ales are generally a bit more hoppy than their cousins from across the pond and often have a bit higher percent alcohol by volume (ABV). A great deal of the unique hoppiness is due to the floral and citrus characteristics of the hops grown in the United States, especially those developed in California and the Pacific Northwest. In addition to the increased hop characteristics, American ales are generally medium bodied with a lighter malt flavor than than European-style ales. Some of the more notable American ale styles are the American pale, amber, brown, and IPA.

Let’s get brewing!  Continue reading →

We Love Weekends
By

We Love Weekends: April 6-8

Photo courtesy of ekelly80
102/365
courtesy of ekelly80

 

Carl: Friday night holds a bit of a wind-down from the week’s activities as I draw a pint off my new draft system and plan my wood-aged beer I will make next month. On Saturday night I will hang out with the lovely and talented Jenn, and then on Sunday I will go to Beautiful Girlfriend’s cousin’s place for Easter dinner. I hope they have circus peanut salad. It’s just not Easter without circus peanut salad. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
By

Possible Space Shuttle Flyby April 17th

Photo courtesy of deg.io
Space Shuttle Endeavour Sunrise
courtesy of deg.io

When NASA released information yesterday about two T-38 jets doing a low flyby over the city of DC, it probably didn’t spark a whole lot of interest. The DC region is often abuzz with low-flying jets for military funerals at Arlington Cemetery or various training missions.

The additional details NASA provided today, however, should cause more than a few ears to perk up. The T-38s were taking photography in preparation for a potential flyby of the National Mall and Capitol by the Space Shuttle Discovery on April 17th. Discovery will be delivered to the Air and Space’s Udvar-Hazy Center on the 17th on the back of a specially-modified Boeing 747.

If all goes as planned, this presents the opportunity for a once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunity. So mark April 17th on your calendars as a day to bring your cameras to the office and take an extra long lunch if you work downtown, or to just take the day off to enjoy the sight of a true American marvel in the skies over our city.

Entertainment, Interviews, Music, Night Life, People, The Features, We Love Music
By

Q&A with Plants and Animals

 

photo credit: Laura Totten

Plants and Animals are a post-rock trio from Canada, currently based in Montreal. Their energetic, guitar-driven indie sound has garnered them acclaim and recognition from the likes of Paste, Filter, and Nylon, among others. They are currently on tour of the US and Canada, and are making a stop at DC’s Red Palace this Friday, April 6th. WeLoveDC’s Alexia Kauffman got a chance to chat with guitarist Nic Basque, and here’s what he had to say.

Alexia Kauffman: How’s your tour going?

Nic Basque: Oh, it’s going well! We’ve done a few shows where we’re from, in Montreal, Quebec, and we went to South by Southwest, and now we’re on the West Coast, driving to Portland.

Alexia: How did South by Southwest go for you?

Nic: It was great! A bit insane, but we got lucky. Our label and management company organized a showcase in a church, so it was pretty calm, and we had good sound. That was great. And we did a couple of bar shows, and those were fun too. I think it was the first time we traveled there with a sound engineer, and that made a huge difference. We were a bit more in control, so that was great. But it was insane!

Alexia: I’ve heard it’s like totally nuts! Did you have any favorite moments while you were there?

Nic: Well the show was fun, and we went to a Mexican place we go every time where they have avocado margaritas- that was fun. We saw some friends too…In terms of shows we didn’t see much except for the showcase. It’s so weird the conditions that bands are playing, that it’s tough to really enjoy bands there. Continue reading →

News, The Daily Feed, ward 8
By

Marion Barry: “Too Many Asians” own businesses

Photo courtesy of tbridge
Marion Barry
courtesy of tbridge

According to WAMU’s Elahe Izadi, on Election night, Marion Barry made disparaging remarks about Asian-owned businesses in his ward, and put emphasis on replacing them with African-American-owned businesses:

“We’ve got to do something about these Asians coming in, opening up businesses, those dirty shops. They ought to go, I’ll just say that right now, you know,” he told a group of supporters on Tuesday. “But we need African-American businesspeople to be able to take their places, too.”

The remarks are confounding to just about everyone. Mediaite has picked up comments from the Mayor and the President of the Pan Asian Chamber of Commerce.

Remember, DC: this guy’s here until he’s dead. And probably another term after that.

Sports Fix
By

What the Nats need this season

Photo courtesy of oddlittlebird.
HR!
courtesy of oddlittlebird.

The Nationals begin their 2012 season today at Wrigley Field in Chicago, the second oldest of all of the parks still in use. They’ll return to their own friendly confines at Nationals Park, the fifth youngest of the parks. As the “newest” of the franchises, they still have much to prove, and their first few years in the District have not been as successful as many would have hoped. The battle for the hearts and mind of the DC area hasn’t been an easy one for the team, having lost many locals due to a bitter stadium fight, and others with a lackluster franchise performance.

In the off-season, the Nationals shored up their pitching, and have assembled one of the finer rotations in the National League.  Over the last three years, they’ve built a fine minor league system, and revamped the attractions at Nationals Park, to include some innovative options. What the Nationals need to develop this year is their fan base. A trip to Verizon Center this past weekend would have revealed what DC’s fans can do when they’re excited and wound up, and everyone who was there said it was the loudest game they’d heard in some time. The question is: can the Nats engender that sort of loyalty in the fan base this season?

Continue reading →

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
By

We Love Arts: The Taming of the Shrew

Irina Tsikurishvili as Katherine, Ryan Sellers as Petruchio, Alex Mills as Grumio in Synetic Theater's Taming of the Shrew. Photo credit: Johnny Shyrock.

Synetic Theater takes Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and beautifully reinvents it – not as a “problem play” about women being subjugated to men, but as a love story between two people desperately trying to cast off their masks and rise above the damage of broken trust. It’s effectively rescued from the misogynist dustbin in a rollicking ninety minutes, performed with all the sexy aplomb of an Italian fashion show on acid.

The production also sees the apex of choreographer Irina Tsikurishvili’s skill, where movement is flawlessly integrated to characterization and plot. Allowing not only for the usual expected moments of Synetic athleticism, but also for quiet beauty that’s truly human, this is dance theater at its finest.

Opening with a funeral to pinpoint the heartbreak of two motherless women, director Paata Tsikurishvili frames the story in a helpful way that provides motivation for both sisters’ acting out. While older Katherine (Irina Tsikurishvili) explodes in caustic rage at paparazzi, the younger Bianca (Irina Kavsadze) struts and pouts for the tabloids. Into their hollow lives come two men completely outside the flash – earnest Lucentio (Scott Brown) and rebellious Petruchio (Ryan Sellers).

Oh, there’s also a wink to Victoria’s Secret catwalk shows, a hair-raising motorcycle ride, nude modeling, body paint, and a rubber chicken. Irreverent? Definitely. But always in service to the story.
Continue reading →

We Love Arts
By

We Love Arts: Strange Interlude

Rachel Spencer Hewitt as Madeline Arnold and Joe Short as Gordon Evans in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Strange Interlude, directed by Michael Kahn. Photo by Scott Suchman.

Before there was Herman’s Head there was Eugene O’Neill and Strange Interlude.

Wait, where are you going? Come back!

Okay, sorry, sorry – I get it, comparing a B-level 90s sitcom to the Pulitzer-winning work of a nobel laureate is maybe a little jarring. The Shakespeare Theater Company’s production of Strange Interlude is certainly a far cry better than the show that brought us such masterful dialog as “regret is a rough sheet to sleep on,” but they’re both trying to do the same thing: give the viewer a peek behind the curtain of what a person says, shows, and implies and instead convey every exact thought.

Michael Kahn trimmed the notoriously long play himself and directed this cast, providing us with a snappy, funny, clever, compelling, riveting, tragic story of people living the lives of quiet desperation that Thoreau described. O’Neill wanted to expose us to that song rather than just see the reflection of it around the edges and STC’s production does it beautifully. It might be longest show I have ever seen in the Harman and may also be the one that felt the shortest.

In the spirit of the play I’ll be explicit: I really loved it.

Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
By

Some tweets just need no explanation – results from the 2012 DC Primary

Marion Barry is Twaggin

I’m just going to leave this here.

The Councilman for life won his primary challenge yesterday, joining Muriel Bowser, Yvette Alexander and Jack Evans as incumbents that have locked up their party’s slot on the November ballot, and in DC, the de facto general election.

In the race for At-Large, Vincent Orange has a 500 vote lead over Sekou Biddle for the party’s nomination, with former PG County council chair Peter Shapiro splitting the vote just enough to put Orange in the driver’s seat for the fall election. Due to the unique requirements of the District’s charter, there will be one seat guaranteed to an independent or non-majority party, though both could go that direction under law.

So, who’s out there twaggin’ on behalf of DC today?

Justin Karp from WJLA has rounded up some of the best Barry-related tweets today.

News, The Daily Feed
By

NASA sending two T-38s over DC tomorrow

T38s NASA

photo courtesy of NASA

If you’re out for coffee tomorrow morning, and spot two low-flying jets over DC, don’t panic. These aren’t the scrambled fighter jets, they’re two NASA T-38 training aircraft doing a milk run over the city to get photography and train some additional pilots.  They’ll be flying fairly low – 1,500 feet – and should be pretty unmistakable in NASA white.

The T-38s carry two astronauts, and have a maximum speed of Mach 1.3, and can reach into the stratosphere, with a service ceiling at 50,000 feet.

Food and Drink, The Features
By

Greek Easter at Zaytinya

Photo courtesy of Greg Powers

Spit-roasts and cocktails? Get me to the Greek! Restaurant that is…

Starting this Sunday, Zaytinya, one of my Jose Andres favorites, is offering a special lamb-festive menu to celebrate the Easter holiday and all things spring (hence the beautiful green accents on every dish). Regardless of what Gods we do or don’t praise, Easter is a time for gathering over a lot of food, while drinking hair of the dog (or what I call a standard Sunday), and who better than the Greeks to give us a taste of their cultural heritage to live by.

Photo courtesy of Greg Powers

If you are a lamb lover-crafty cocktail sipping-date kinda guy/gal, the ten-course ‘Chef’s Experience’ has your name written all over it. A ten-course meal designed by Chef Michael Costa showcases a variety of dishes that speak to the versatility of the good old lamb, and highlight the chef’s own ability to take a classic dish and add a modern twist (case in point- Asparagus Salata, aka, the upgraded tzatziki – a combination of white asparagus, green asparagus, pistachios, microgreens, and lemon). Other standouts included Arni me Sparangia, spit-roasted lamb shoulder with asparagus, ladolemono and dill; Mayiritsa, traditional Easter soup with lamb’s liver, caramelized onions, short grain rice, egg and lemon broth (and I thought I wasn’t into offal); Spanakorizo, rice pilaf with wilted spinach and tomatoes, spinach puree, preserved cherry tomatoes and feta.

Continue reading →

Sports Fix
By

Ramos, Desmond Can’t Power Nats Past Red Sox

Photo courtesy of MudflapDC
Danny close-up
courtesy of MudflapDC

This Spring Training Danny Espinosa struggled to the tune of .241/.302/.342 with 26 strikeouts in 79 at bats, and just as it looked like he was going to end the Spring on a good note things turned sour. With two outs and Desmond having walked and stolen second ahead of Espinosa’s single it looked like the Nats had either ended their last exhibition game in a tie or sent it to extra innings, but that was not to be as Desmond was thrown out at the plate by Jason Repko to end the game and give the Red Sox the hard fought 8-7 victory over the Nationals.

This last Spring Training game for the Nationals came with many twists and turns, but the biggest might have been what happened off the field. Around the third inning Davey Johnson informed John Lannan that he would not be getting on the plane headed to Chicago with the rest of the team. Instead John Lannan was sent to Syracuse. This decision was not made lightly and it wasn’t made because Lannan pitched poorly in the Spring. The decision was made because Ross Detwiler pitched that much better than John Lannan and had earned the fifth spot in the Nationals rotation.

Continue reading →